In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 05-111111 (hereinafter referred to as JP1993-111111A), an electric automobile is disclosed in which driving motors are driven from a battery through a drive circuit (see FIG. 1). In this case, drive forces that are generated by the drive motors are controlled by the drive circuit being controlled from a controller.
According to JP1993-111111A, if the temperature of the battery decreases lower than a normal temperature (30° C. according to JP1993-111111A), it is considered that the residual capacity (charge amount) of the battery may be lowered, and therefore to protect the battery from excessive discharge, a configuration is disclosed in which, responsive to a decrease in the temperature of the battery, the drive forces generated by the motors are controlled by a controller through the drive circuit (see FIGS. 2 and 3).
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-245896 (hereinafter referred to as JP2007-245896A), an all wheel drive (four wheel drive) vehicle is disclosed in which, for example, the front wheels are driven by motive power from an engine, whereas the rear wheels are driven by motive power from an electric motor (see FIG. 1). Electric power, which is generated by a dedicated generator driven by rotary output torque from the engine, is supplied to the electric motor that drives the rear wheels.
According to the disclosure of JP2007-245896A, in the event that excessive slippage occurs in the front wheels that are driven by the engine, in order to suppress such excessive slippage, the acceleration is suppressed by reducing the rotary output torque of the engine, and a sharp decrease in a falling speed of a motor torque command value is prevented. As a result, an abnormal increase in the voltage of the dedicated generator can be prevented from occurring (see, paragraphs [0004], [0011], and [0033]).
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-215017 (hereinafter referred to as JP2013-215017A), a vehicle is disclosed in which one of the front wheel pair (left front wheel and right front wheel) and the rear wheel pair (left rear wheel and right rear wheel) is driven (see, FIG. 1 and paragraph [0127]).
In JP2013-215017A, a vehicle drive apparatus is disclosed in which, during a time that the rear wheels (left rear wheel and right rear wheel) are being driven, when an excessive slip occurs in one of the rear wheels, the drive torque of the rear wheel in which the excessive slip occurs is reduced, together with partially reducing the drive torque of the other rear wheel so that a yaw moment will not be generated. Further, so that the driving force of the vehicle does not decrease, a reduced drive torque is distributed to the front wheels (left front wheel and right front wheel) (See, paragraphs [0082] to [0085] and FIGS. 20(a), 20(b), 20(c)).
According to JP2013-215017A, it is disclosed that, since the vehicle drive apparatus is capable of transmitting a sufficient torque to the road surface in response to a driver request, even on a split μ road, the running performance of the vehicle can be maintained (see, Abstract).
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2011-079379 (hereinafter referred to as JP2011-079379A), a hybrid vehicle drive apparatus is disclosed, which is equipped with a transmission that is switched by a double clutch located between an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, and in which the internal combustion engine is connected in series to the electric motor (FIGS. 1 and 14).